Your problem is that FL doesnt reference skins by their names but CRC codes.
there is a tool out there, called something like CRC generator - you will need that one to get the new references for ur materials.

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Excelcia Mod Leading Developer

Thanks for the reply. Though, I'm not sure what you mean by CRC codes. Can you clear it up a bit please?

Where are they located exactly? ship cmp files? mat file? I'm guessing I need to edit the codes with the UTF editor since all I could find was a 'CRC calculator' which is basically a string > CRC converter... ??

And why does my skin work fine when I'm docked at a base but doesn't work in space?

Any bit of help would be appreciated.


Edited by - -nazgul- on 4/13/2004 5:15:34 PM

Edited by - -nazgul- on 4/13/2004 5:16:10 PM

Open your model up in Milkshape, texture it, then use the nifty little .Mat exporter plugin for Milkshape, and it should solve your problem.

I read somewhere here that if you put like br_ or ku_ or li_ as the beginning to your .mat file, then the game will use the original .mat file (if that made any sense). So, i suggest just redoing a .mat file, and calling it something TOTALLY original...like "my_sabre.mat" and i think it should solve your problem.

The .mat file exporter for MS is just awesome and saves TONS of work.

Baene

don't bother doing it manually, I looked into it, there are about 80 lines of reference to a material id in ships with multiple materials. One alternative though is to import the ship and reexport it using different material names, hence it will redo the ids based on the new names of the materials you give it, and not cause conflict with the exsisting sabres material id numbers. Problem with this is you will have to extract the freelancer textures needed from the sabres mat, and fix any of the glitches caused by the milkshape ship importer (missing faces, gaps in the hull) reapply the materials, then re hardpoint it and export it back to freelancer.

For the most part, for the work required it's better to just start ships from scratch then to try reputting in exsisting freelancer models using the importer/exporter. But the choice is yours.

Well, thanks guys.... For anyone that runs into the same problem and stumbles into this thread:

After substantial research with a good dose of trial and error I finally solved my problem... It basically boils down to what black_lightning said; The easiest way to create/re-skin your own ship variants using the built-in Freelancer ship models is (and belive me when say I tried everything else, I avoid model-editing like the plague):

- Import the ship model into milkshape (I used v1.7) using the cmp importer. Feel free to use the old textures as templates, just remember to extract them from the original .MAT file.
- Do any needed model manipulation (ie: weld the hatch pannels).
- Re-do all the hard-points.
- Texture the model using .DDS files (only milkshape 1.7+ supports this). Note to self: TGA files are a pain in the ass.
- Flip the model upside down (top to bottom) and reverse its facing direction (back to front).
- increase scale-size to 94 (x,y,z).
- export the cmp file.
- export the mat file (make sure your textures are .dds format).

For everything else, followed Drizzt's tutorial to the letter. Remember to install: cmp importer, cmp exporter, mat exporter plugins for milkshape.

Thanks for your help guys. I can finally get some sleep





Edited by - -nazgul- on 4/14/2004 11:02:50 PM